“A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.”
Source: She Stoops to Conquer
“We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.”
“Fear guides more than gratitude.”
“Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.”
Source: The Beauties of Goldsmith
“He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: The life of Oliver Goldsmith
“Politeness is the result of good sense and good nature.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: Letters from a citizen of the world, to his friend in the East. A familiar introduction to the study of natural history
“A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield
“All is not gold that glitters,
Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters”
Source: She Stoops to Conquer
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.”
“As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must necessarily arise a desire of attaining knowledge with the greatest possible ease.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Good people all, with one accord, Lament for Madam Blaize, Who never wanted a good word From those who spoke her praise.”
Source: Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, Citizen of the world, Poetical works, etc
“So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind him to his native mountains more.”
Source: The Traveller
“Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author
“To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art.”
Source: Goldsmith's Deserted village, with remarks on the analysis of sentences, exercises in parsing, notes ... and a life of the poet ... By Walter M'Leod
“A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad When he put on his clothes.”
“And e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart distrusting asks if this be joy.”
“There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher.”
“Where wealth accumulates, men decay.”
“Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity.”
“When we take a slight survey of the surface of our globe a thousand objects offer themselves which, though long known, yet still demand our curiosity.”
Source: A History of the Earth: And Animated Nature
“The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism, which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may be referred to the second predicable.”
Source: Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield employed as a means of reading made easy without any alteration of orthography ... By Charles Theodor von Kersten
“And as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies, He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay, Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.”
Source: Goldsmith's Deserted village, with remarks on the analysis of sentences, exercises in parsing, notes ... and a life of the poet ... By Walter M'Leod
“What is genius or courage without a heart?”
Source: The Beauties of Goldsmith, Or, The Complete Treasury of Genius: To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author
“Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.”
Source: Goldsmith's Deserted village, with notes and a life of the poet by W. M'Leod. (Oxf. exam. scheme).
“By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd; The sports of children satisfy the child.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, select poems and comedies, with intr., notes and a life by J.F. Waller
“Even children follow'd with endearing wile, And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile.”
Source: The Poetical works
“While Resignation gently slopes away, And all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere the world be past.”
Source: Goldsmith's miscellaneous works
“He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleas'd he could whistle them back.”
Source: The Select Works of Oliver Goldsmith: In One Volume. With the Portrait of the Author..
“Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po.”
Source: A History of the Earth: And Animated Nature
“A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay,- A cap by night, a stocking all the day.”
Source: Letters from a Citizen of the World to His Friends in the East
“Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; Full well the busy whisper circling round Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd. Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault; The village all declar'd how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher too.”
“The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor, The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door; The chest, contriv'd a double debt to pay,- A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Etc
“Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; It 's like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith. 1: Poetical works; Dramas; The vicar of Wakefield
“Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield
“Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.”
“Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Including a Variety of Pieces Now First Collected
“Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.”
“The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if as be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies. Methinks her patient sons before me stand, Where the broad ocean leans against the land.”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can, An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man.”
“The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.”
Source: Goldsmith's Deserted village, with remarks on the analysis of sentences, exercises in parsing, notes ... and a life of the poet ... By Walter M'Leod
“Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind; Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote. Who too deep for his hearers still went on refining, And thought of convincing while they thought of dining: Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.”
“And learn the luxury of doing good.”
Source: The works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by P. Cunningham
“In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill, For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still; While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around; And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith
“The greatest object in the universe, says a certain philosopher, is a good man struggling with adversity; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it.”
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield
“Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.”
Source: An inquiry into the present state of polite learning. The Bee. History of Cyrillo Padovano. Life of Dr. Parnell. Life of Lord Bolingbroke. Prefaces and introductions
“A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined.”
Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith
“Of all kinds of ambition, that which pursues poetical fame is the wildest”
Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Poetical works. Dramas. The vicar of Wakefield
“Silence is become his mother tongue.”
